Prior to our investigation,o nly subjectivec linicali mpressionws erea vailable
for recordingt he manifestationso f dandruffa nd any attempt to explore
therapeutic measures had to be carried out with indeterminate means of
verifying the results. It would perhaps have been naive to hope that our
studies would solve all the outstanding questions, but reasonably sound
lines along which to pursue the problem do seem to have been established.
For example,w e have demonstratedth at clinicals tudy can be conducted
systematically and panel tests undertaken with the use of each subject as
his own control during a pre-treatment and incidentally, a post-treatment
period; if enough subjects are available, separate test and control groups
can also be used.
It is not yet possible to indicate whether the Pityrosporum ovale has a
pathogenic role in relation to dandruff. The abundant supply of fatty
THE INVESTIGATION OF DANDRUFF 627
of the organisma nd the demonstrationt hat a simplef atty ester will produce
dandruff-like lesions on a laboratory animal, all tend to keep alive the
concept of a microbial causation. On the other hand, parakeratosis is a
relatively non-specificre sponseto irritation and it is too early to form any
firm conclusions. We have been impressedb y the parallel work on Tinea
Versicolor (14) which might implicate Pityrosporum orbiculare; formation
of antibodies to the antigen produced by this organism has been demonstrated
by immunofluorescencset udies. This suggeststh e need to consider
a possiblea llergict ype of mechanismin dandruff and, in the presents tate
of knowledge on this subject, it would be unwise to rule out any route for
further study.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS